Nancy Jardine - Where History Comes Alive
Good Morning!
The Coffee Pot Book Club Blog Tour begins today!
So, today I expect to be visiting:
On the above blogs you'll find a spotlight of the novel, a guest post that I've written and you won't want to miss and two excerpts from the novel!
I've a busy day, so till next time, Tak Tent. (take care)
Slainthe!
Hello Again,
I mentioned in my last post that Tailored Truths is going on a Blog Tour with the Coffee Pot Book Club and for this I needed to write some guest posts for some of the lovely bloggers who are hosting me/ the book.
I actually wrote more than I needed, so I'll be adding the extras on here because they are all centred around the second part of Margaret Law's story in Tailored Truths. Today's post is about church adherence in the mid-Victorian Era. I, admittedly, made original assumptions when beginning my research of the city of Dundee, Scotland, during the 1850s and 1860s. I wrongly thought that the bulk of the population were good church attendees but this is what I discovered:
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| Dundee Parish Church St. Mary's - rebuilt 1842-1844 Medieval tower in behind |
I don’t believe it possible to write a trilogy set during the Victorian era in Scotland without mentioning church attendance at some point. However, the research I did for churches in Dundee (Scotland) during the mid-1800s wasn’t quite as I expected.
When Tailored Truths opens my character Margaret has just arrived in the city of Dundee to meet her best friend Jessie, who has also left her job in Edinburgh. Margaret’s own religious upbringing has been problematic and has left her with grave doubts about God, and the realities of following a pious church-filled lifestyle.
Margaret’s own parents have had a dysfunctional marital relationship, her father ostensibly fervently devout but never seemingly happy with any particular protestant denomination that he tries out. Growing up in the 1840s, in the small town of Milnathort, Kinross Shire, Margaret has been dragged to church regularly but over time to different church sects and church buildings.
In Scotland, the year 1843 was a time of ‘church’ turmoil, a time when the long-established and main Church of Scotland fractured and around a third of the ministers and lay people left to form new churches. These new churches, based on different ideologies, struggled to gain new followers. Margaret’s father never appeared to find the best fit for his zealous religious fervour, her mother blindly following and displaying almost no will of her own. By her early teen years, Margaret has formed no particular allegiance to any church, and isn’t entirely sure if there’s a point to putting all one’s faith in the god worshipped in protestant churches in Scotland.
Margaret and Jessie are in Dundee for an initial purpose – both seeking to confront their own fathers. Jessie’s father, who has never acknowledged that she is his bastard daughter, is a degenerate minister whose position in Milnathort has been rescinded and he’s been sent to pastor in a Seaman’s Mission Hall in Dundee. Jessie feels the need to confront this ‘Man of God’ – who has left a trail of unacknowledged bastard children in his wake – so that she can get on with her own life. Margaret’s father’s whereabouts are unknown though the last sighting for him is Dundee. She’s not seen him for a few years but she’d like to clarify some awful things she heard about his treatment of her mother, information divulged by her uncle on her mother’s deathbed.
Jessie’s quest for her father is easily resolved at the beginning of Tailored Truths, but Margaret is at an impasse. With no address like Jessie had, Margaret quickly realizes that asking at church doors if anyone has ever heard of her father is a fruitless exercise. There is a church building of some form on almost every street, or street corner, in Dundee. Many of these are of the established Church of Scotland but meeting halls and church buildings affiliated to lots of other protestant sects are dotted in between. When Margaret left home to work in Edinburgh as a twelve-year-old, her father was attending a United Free Presbyterian church, but he could be attending any one of a number of different ones in Dundee. When Margaret walks around Dundee, the church information boards outside their buildings declare them to be Congregational; Methodist; Baptist; Memorial; United Secession; Relief. Many church meeting halls had different names and practices like the Sandemanian and the Glasite communities. Margaret thinks it unlikely that her father would have changed to attending a Roman Catholic Church, or an Episcopalian Church (with rituals more like a Church of England) but it’s always possible. Though, her father may, by now, have given up on religion altogether.
What I found surprising were references to the fact that there were a good number of people living in Dundee during the mid-1850s who didn’t attend a church at all. Whether they were truly atheist, or just not inclined to attend regular worship wasn’t clear. What wasn’t surprising is that the Dundee city population rose steadily every decade of the 1800s and new residents to Dundee perhaps felt less pressured to conform to church attendance, if it wasn’t their calling. There was probably an anonymity to someone dwelling in a city, with fewer people watching their every move, unlike how it still was in a small town, or country setting.
A specific census of 1851, regarding church attendance across Scotland, attempted to determine how many regular church attendees there were. That data isn’t all available but a note was made that possibly around 60% in Scotland were regular attendees. However, it was also noted that attendance in the larger cities in Scotland – Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Dundee – was a lot lower than that of across the countryside.
In Tailored Truths we find Margaret sometimes attending the church of one of her friends but, as often as not, she doesn’t go at all. To still appear to be a respectable young lady there’s a hint that she makes sure to be out of her lodging house at some point on a Sunday, her landlady making the assumption that Margaret is being a good church attendee. Since church services and meetings took place in the mornings, afternoons and evenings on a Sunday it wasn’t so difficult to create an assumption.
Does that mean that Margaret spent godless and lawless Sundays? Tailored Truths reveals that answer…
Till next time,
Slainthe!
Good Morning!
I'm beavering away, getting all my ducks in a row (do they work together?), for a Coffee Pot Book Club Blog Tour that Tailored Truths is going on very soon beginning the 19th September 2025! There will be more details to come though here's a poster to get us started.
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In the meanwhile... I'm adding an excerpt from the novel for you to enjoy from Tailored Truths! At this point, Margret has begun a relatively new venture, innovative for its time, for Edward Baxton owner of one of the big Dundee linen and jute mills (Scotland). She's managing a little sewing workshop using lockstitch sewing machines (very new technology) making basic, ready made clothes to sell to the workers at the mill. This means regular trips to a draper/ warehouse shop on Reform Street, central Dundee.
What a
cheeky young man!
“Is this young man bothering you, Miss Law?” Mister Ingram’s question was quite loud as he walked forward along the aisle to join them.
“No, it’s
quite alright, Mister Ingram. I’m ready to order now if you’re free?” She made
sure to make her request as business like as possible. “Good day, Mister
Fraser.”
Once back
at Mister Ingram’s desk. she ordered the usual stock that she needed and asked him
for the price of the first bale of woollen cloth from Kirriemuir that she’d
fingertip-assessed.
“Did that
rascal Fraser coerce you in any way to order this, Miss Law?”
Margaret
laughed at the concerned expression on the older man’s face. “No, not at all.
I’m about to create stocks of cheap trousers for mill lads and I think that
slightly coarser wool will do very nicely. Though, of course, it would be even
better if the price was cheaper.”
“I believe
that cloth would suit your purpose. I took it from Johnny Fraser as a favour
even though it’s a bit rough and ready, but I’d need to think long and hard
about selling it any cheaper than the marked price.”
The
twinkle in Mister Ingram’s eye made her confident he might knock the price down
a little, especially as it wouldn’t need to be taking up space on his shelves
till someone eventually bought it.
“I only
took two bales of it into stock earlier today. Though you let me know if you
find it makes good sales at the mill and, if so, I’ll see if I can get you
more.” There was a slight pause while she felt an almost paternal tinge to his
words. “Johnny Fraser has a smooth tongue that you might need to be wary of,
but he’s a likeable lad for all that. He only stepped in to deliver today since
there’s been a bit of sickness in Kirriemuir and the usual delivery man wasn’t
able to make the trip.”
Mister
Ingram quickly jotted down her order in his sales ledger and turned the book
around for her to sign.
Margaret
quickly memorised the total. “I just hope it’s not the cholera! I’ve read about
that in the newspapers. So many people died from that a while back.”
“I hope
not, too. We can do without that in Dundee. We have enough sickness, year on
year, from other causes like the disgusting water supplies in our wells.”
Mister
Ingram went on to inquire if she needed any help to create cutting patterns for
boys’ clothes, saying he could get one of the Spencer tailors to help her.
“No, thank
you. I learned how to do some boys’ tailoring when I worked down in Liverpool.”
Mister Ingram already knew some of her past sewing history.
On her
fast walk back to the mill she put her thumping heart beats and hot cheeks down
to her hurry. It was nothing to do with having met the very handsome Johnny
Fraser with the twinkling blue eyes and head of thick, unruly hair that begged
to be tweaked. Her reasoning made her laugh aloud. In all of the past ten years
hardly any men had produced an instant attraction, and those who had had been
wrong for her, for all sorts of reasons.
She
couldn’t quite put her finger on it but Johnny Fraser was probably too
handsome, somehow too cocksure for his own good…and just as unsuitable.
Kirriemuir wasn’t that far away, a matter of some twenty miles, but it was
likely a good thing that he didn’t live in Dundee.
She was
still chuckling about his appeal as she turned into the cobbled lane that led
to the mill warehouse. The likelihood of ever seeing Johnny Fraser again was
probably as fleeting as the fluffy clouds that whisked their way across the
mostly blue sky above her to dissipate into nothingness.
That night she picked up her pen and ink.
Dear
Jessie,
I know
it’s not long since my last letter but I had to tell you that I had the most
delightful day!
Things
are going so very well at the workroom, that we’re running out of materials
almost as soon as they are delivered to us. As a result, I had to make a visit
to Spencer & Co. and while there I met the cheekiest young man who was
flirting with me right there in the warehouse.
He's
devilishly handsome but I’m not going to be drawn in with those incredibly blue
eyes of Johnny Fraser. It’s just as well he’s from Kirriemuir and not Dundee!
Since
you’ve not written to me this week, I assume that you and the children are well
and that George is his usual fine self. If all goes according to our previous
plan, I’ll take the train down to Glasgow to see you next month.
Your
loving (and presently very amused) best friend,
Margaret
Slainthe!
